how long for first workers

[ShulerAnt]

Hi,
My son is new to ant keeping, we received his first queen ant around 2/10/21. Should her larvae of hatched by now? We have her in the original test tube, she is in a quiet dark space , temp ranging from 67-72 degrees, water supply. Her species is Messor Barbarus.
Thanks,
Kelly

[AM1C39]

The longest egg to worker process is 3 months but only if they are not in hibernation, if they are in hibernation it will take longer. Do you know if the queen has any eggs yet?

[ShulerAnt]

Thank you so much for the quick reply!
Looks like she has 3 eggs. she is active in the test tube, we leave her alone, check on her 2 twice a week.
Thanks
Kelly

[AM1C39]

You should expect workers in 2 to 4 months, but probably faster.

[AntsLuxembourg]

Hello there,

For Messor Barbarus the time from egg to worker is around 45 days which may vary depending of the temperatur in the testtube. 72°F or 22°C is a good temperature. But they may also like it a bit warmer. Around 25°C / 77°C would be their prefered temperatur for them inside the nest. What I would recommend during the founding stage to check on the queen only once per week, even if it's hard to do so at the beginning. I made the mistake myself to check on my queen all the time, which stressed her and may have lead to her dying.

For food info you can check on my thread where I wrote some of my general info about the colony and what I have figured out with testing etc. https://forum.AntsCanada.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=18552&hilit=messor+barbarus

So to help you with the waiting time, you could try to get some nice pointy tweezers and fruits that are on the list in my thread. Collect some seeds so you are ready when it's time. During summer you should make sure to get a good amount of dandelion seeds as my colony loves them. This may be due to the size and availability of the seeds. Sunflower seeds would also be a good idea. Oh but I should mention that of course there could be a risk with this due to the use of pestizides on the fruits in the store. So far my colony did not have any issues with this and it may be just luck.

My colony did not ever touch the honey I offered as Messor Barbarus is mainly eating seeds and the few insects that I have thrown in their setup. Each time I have thrown in honey, they have covered it up with a lot of garbage so don't waste your time with that.

Anyway, if you have questions don't hesitate to ask. I will try to help as much as possible with my advise.

[ShulerAnt]

So my ant still has not hatched any workers, I have 6 larvae. I received her mid February, concerned there maybe an issue. She is still in the test tube w/ water at this point, I think I should put her in a larger environment w/ food/seed. Any advice? Should I be concerned?
Shuler

[AntsLuxembourg]

Hi,

No there shouldn't be any issues. What's the temperatur in the room? Is it around 16°C (Hibernation) or around 22-25°C? If the temperatur is too low then they may not continue to develop and wait until it gets warmer. Now that I mentioned it, how did you hibernate them? At what temperatur did they hibernate?

You can use Fahrenheit but I prefer Celsius as it's much wider used and more accurate.

[ShulerAnt]

The temp ranges between 18 and 21. The weather is still cool here. We received the ant in February and didn't do anything special to hibernate her (we are still new to this). We are getting warmer days so hopefully that will speed things along. Would it make sense to get a heater now or just wait for the warmer weather?

[RuinedDrone]

My Lasius niger took around 4 months for first worker and then shortly after went in to hibernation.

We see ants as activive crazy fast moving insectes but actuly the colony as a whole can be very slow moving. I would not worry to much Febuary is not that long. I not sure about hibernation for your specices but i know with Lasius Niger even when kept inside in a resonable warm (15 degrees) they still chose to hibernate. So as its febuary yo ugot her she the whole colony might only jsut be comming outof a slow period now.

Just check on her a once a week or so, make sure she ahs access to water and if she is moving then keep waiting USethe time to read up an learn about the next step, once you get workers you want to make sure the first brood get of to a good start as that will insure the colony gorws as quick as possible, and the sooner you have a good number of workers the safer the queen will be.

[AntsLuxembourg]

The temp ranges between 18 and 21. The weather is still cool here. We received the ant in February and didn't do anything special to hibernate her (we are still new to this). We are getting warmer days so hopefully that will speed things along. Would it make sense to get a heater now or just wait for the warmer weather?

Since it's not so wark, they probably are in a sort of transition state right now. Basically they don't really hibarnate but also don't do too much currently.
What you could do to have something "ant related" that is also helpful for your colony. Get some random reads for them. I myself stocked up on some sugar melon seeds (Galia and Charentais) and found out about the difference of both. They just look different both inside and outside. But the seeds for me are just the exact same.

Maybe start with some strawberries. Get some tweezers and then pick the seeds off of them. Dry them a bit on a paper towel, move them into a small container and put them on a heater and then you should be good to go. Maybe also get some kiwi seeds and when the season comes, Raspberry and Blackberry.

It is time consuming and so it taking care of ants sometimes. So it's also something of a good practice for your patience.